New Yorkers & Co.; The Profit Motive Was Not Motivation

By ALBERT SCARDINO

Published: May 16, 1988

After a string of jobs in the public sector stretching over two decades, Peter C. Goldmark jumped across the line into private business in 1986 to take a senior management job with the Times Mirror Company. Now, after only two years, he is leaping back out of it, this time to experience the world of private, nonprofit organizations as president of the Rockefeller Foundation.

Mr. Goldmark, who will start his new job on July 1, is widely regarded as one of the most successful and imaginative managers in government. The former head of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey never quite fit comfortably in an organization where profit, not public concern, is the primary focus.

With its staff of 111 and an operating budget of little more than $10 million, ''the foundation will be the smallest operation I have run in a long time,'' Mr. Goldmark said last week. But because of its range of programs - from birth control research to support for civil rights litigation -the foundation's horizons are far broader than, say, considering whether The Hartford Courant should add suburban editions. Impish Sense of Humor

He described his Times Mirror job - senior vice president in charge of the Eastern division, which has six newspapers, book publishers and a growing collection of magazines - as the best opportunity he could have found in the private sector.

Still, try as he might - with an impish sense of humor and a disarmingly enthusiastic demeanor - he cannot completely hide the boredom brought on by narrowing his sights to the challenges facing a single company. It is obvious to those around him that he will fit more naturally into his new role, where he can spread his attention to global concerns.

''He took the job with Times Mirror because anybody who has served in public life longs to hold a position of influence in the communications industry,'' said Gordon Davis, a lawyer who served with Mr. Goldmark in the administration of Mayor John V. Lindsay of New York and later served as parks commissioner. ''It's not like going to work for General Motors. It is draped in a certain mantle of public authority.'' A Stranger to Profit

But despite the familiar feel of the public aspects of the business, Mr. Goldmark found himself in strange territory when it came to dealing with the primary obligation of a private company - turning a profit.

He threw himself into strategic planning for Newsday as it tried to force its way out of its Long Island stronghold to gain a place in New York City alongside The New York Times, The Daily News and The New York Post. He pushed the paper's management to concentrate on the schools, hospitals and police precinct houses, not just on the mayor's office.

''It's glamorous to be near the center of power,'' he said, ''but the news is out there away from City Hall.'' A Feel for News

He had never worked in the business before, ''but he could quickly come up with a list of the 10 subjects the paper should be paying more attention to,'' said Steven L. Isenberg, associate publisher of Newsday. ''He could project the sense of what our goal should be when it comes to serving readers.''

Though he could become engrossed in a discussion about how to provide information to the public, he had more difficulty concentrating on business problems. ''I had occasion to talk with him about magazines shortly after he took the job,'' said Clay Felker, editor of Manhattan,inc.

Mr. Felker remembers that Mr. Goldmark paid attention to what he had to say, but listened passively until ''we started talking about politics, and suddenly he was up out of his chair and excited.'' Lindsay's Chief of Staff

Public issues have driven Mr. Goldmark at least since his graduation from Harvard in 1962. After a false start as a history teacher at a prep school in Vermont, Mr. Goldmark took up the first of a series of public-sector jobs. He served as chief of staff for Mayor Lindsay, ran the department of human services for the State of Massachusetts under Gov. Francis Sargent and joined the administration of Gov. Hugh Carey as budget director just before the onset of the New York City fiscal crisis in the mid-1970's.

''That may sound smooth,'' Mr. Goldmark said, ''but the truth is I lurched from one job to another. I left Massachusetts because the governor I was working for was unseated by a fellow named Dukakis.'' 'He's Just Too Sharp'

He persuaded Governor Carey to hire him as the state budget director, but before he could report for work, Mr. Carey received a warning. ''Dukakis told me, 'Better be careful about that fellow Goldmark,' '' Mr. Carey said last week. '' 'He's just too sharp, all kinds of ideas.' ''

Mr. Carey went ahead with the appointment and later helped install Mr. Goldmark as executive director of the Port Authority, the agency responsible for the metropolitan airports, many of its bridges and tunnels and a wide range of economic development programs.

In each of his jobs, he showed a knack not only for establishing a clear direction for his agency but also for winning the loyalty of his staff. ''He is the greatest executive search firm in the world,'' Mr. Davis said. ''He's had plenty of practice finding his own good jobs, but he also helps just about anyone he knows.'' Little Global Experience

He has no pretensions about his skills in the international arena, an area that last year absorbed more than half the $61 million in grants issued by the foundation. He has spent his entire working life in jobs based within a 300-mile radius of New York City, concerned more with the Teleport development on Staten Island and welfare benefits in Massachusetts than with clinical epidemiology in third world countries, a longstanding concern of the foundation.

In fact, he has no discernible pretensions about anything. Lanky and relaxed, his tie loosened and most of his shirttail hanging out, he barely suppresses a quizzical smile. But his conversation can switch in seconds from concerns about a deteriorating environment to arms control issues, and he applies the same kind of strategic thinking to both.